Content #060

Museum of Dien Bien Phu Victory. Điện Biên Phủ, Vietnam 2008
‘In January 1968, during the Vietnam War, the North Vietnamese Army under Võ Nguyên Giáp’s command initiated a siege and artillery bombardment on the U.S. Marine Corps base at Khe Sanh in South Vietnam, as they did at Điện Biên Phủ. The battle ended when the Americans withdrew, leading the North Vietnamese to declare victory. Giáp’s forces besieged Khe Sanh for 77 days. Historians are divided on whether this was a genuine attempt to repeat their success at Điện Biên Phủ by forcing the surrender of the Marine base, or else a diversion from the Tết Offensive, or an example of the North Vietnamese Army keeping its options open, or the other way around: the Tet Offensive itself a distraction from the offensive at Khe Sanh. A number of factors were significantly different between Khe Sanh and Điện Biên Phủ. Khe Sanh was much closer to a US supply base (45 km or 28 mi) compared to a French one at Điện Biên Phủ (200 km or 120 mi).At Khe Sanh, the U.S. Marines held the high ground, and their artillery forced the North Vietnamese to use their own artillery from a much greater distance. By contrast, at Điện Biên Phủ, the French artillery (six 105 mm batteries and one battery of four 155 mm howitzers and mortars[126]) was only sporadically effective. Furthermore, by 1968, the US military presence in Vietnam dwarfed that of the French, and included numerous technological advances such as effective helicopters. Khe Sanh received 18,000 tons of aerial resupplies during the 77-day battle, whereas during the 167 days that the French forces at Điện Biên Phủ held out, they received only 4,000 tons.[127] Also, the US Air Force dropped 114,810 tons of bombs on the North Vietnamese at Khe Sanh, roughly as many as on Japan in 1945 during World War II.’ Bron: Wikipedia.